Police beat for Oct. 16, 2008

Marion County sheriff's detectives Wednesday were investigating an armed home invasion in Silver Springs Shores, with one man shot in the stomach, at around 1:18 p.m.

Marion County sheriff's detectives Wednesday were investigating an armed home invasion in Silver Springs Shores, with one man shot in the stomach, at around 1:18 p.m.Sheriff's officials said the wounded man is "a person of interest" and was at Munroe Regional Medical Center. Someone had dropped him off at the hospital.Detectives Wednesday afternoon said Latwain McLaren, 19, was in surgery.Deputies had one other person in custody and were searching for a clean-shaven 16- to 18-year-old white male with a bald head and a thin build.Authorities think the home invasion might have been drug-related.Investigators believe McLaren and two others kicked in a door at 5 Pine Run Terrace and "battered two victims at gunpoint."

A judge denied bond Wednesday for a man charged with armed home invasion robbery and two counts of attempted second-degree murder with a firearm.Steven Florence, 34, is accused of shooting Brandon Weaver, 26, twice in the back Aug. 18 in the 10000 block of Southeast 129th Street in Belleview.A second man went to an upstairs bedroom and demanded money from Weaver's mother and her boyfriend, according to a Marion County Sheriff's Office report.Circuit Judge Brian Lambert denied the motion to set bond. "Proof of the guilt is evident," he said, pointing out that Weaver had twice made a positive identification.

A 25-year-old Ocala man was arrested Tuesday on charges of having sex with a 14-year-old girl.Jeffery A. Hughes was charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious battery, one count of lewd or lascivious molestation and resisting arrest without violence, according to a Marion County Sheriff's Office report.The teenager told a sheriff's deputy that she had sex with Hughes at his home, 6880 N.E. Fifth St.During a police interview, Hughes reportedly admitted to having sex with the teen and claimed the girl told him she was 17.

Police seized 234 grams of marijuana inside a KFC bag Tuesday and arrested two brothers on drug charges.An officer heard loud music coming from a 2007 Toyota sedan traveling east in the 1500 block of Northwest 14th Avenue, and pulled the car over, according to an Ocala police report.The officer reportedly smelled marijuana. He asked the brothers - later identified as Asa J. Strickland, 35, and Ozias Tubell Strickland, 33 - to step out of the car. During a search of the vehicle, the officer reportedly found four bags of marijuana.

A man snatched a billfold from an 87-year-old woman Tuesday as she walked toward the Walgreens at 3500 S.E. Maricamp Road.She told an officer a man grabbed her billfold and ran off. The man escaped in white van. She described him as a 5-foot-10, 200-pound white man with partially gray brown hair. He was wearing a dirty white T-shirt.